What should I do? Credit Cards and Finance?

Question

My wife and I share finances. we both work but she give up some of her check for household things and savings. i will pay the bills save for things that come up like car maintenance and other necessary things. our credit card used to be as much as $22,000. over the last three years we have worked hard to bring it down to 4,000. i don't want to spend what we don't have and i would like to save for things that we want or we know will come up. i don't want to put anything else on credit. my wife is pretty spiritual and is at a place where i am not yet. she believes that everything will work out so not to worry about things. i on the other hand feel like i am always worrying about thing. is this a man thing or is it just me. I feel so responsible to make sure things are taken care of and feel like i always need to plan to make sure we are okay. i think about things way in advance and worry about saving for those things. i always talk about how if i did not worry i would just buy things that i like. i would not worry if i need it or if it were necessary i would just buy it. sure i would like a new phone but mine works so i just keep it. i would rather save the money for the kids braces or something like that. if i don't worry about it who will? don't get me wrong my wife is the best and i love her to death but sometimes we just don't see the same things.

one last example. i would like to buy a house soon. we are just waiting and at this time we can actually afford one with a little bit of planning. our combined income is okay and we are good to go. i asked my wife about if her father were to get sick and she needed to stay with him (another state) how would she do it if she or i did not save for her time off? she said that she does not worry about that stuff and she would just quit her job because life is more important. That kinda scared me and reminded me that a house together would not be too good right now. i would probably land up losing house because payments. i know her father is important but that is not what i was looking for . i was looking for some type of plan or savings where we would be able to account for such a situation. I am rambling so i better stop. What should i do?

Answer 1

Her spiritual attitude that everything will work out is true.  It will work out but the process as to how it will work out and the outcome is the scary part.  She is being ignorant and ignorance isn't bliss.  She also needs to know that finances is a part of life.  If you both lose your jobs today wouldn't that change your life?

You need to set her down and tell her in a loving mannor that planning is wise.  Show her on paper how her income affects your (you and your wife's) lifestyle.  Walk through a scenerio with her, but be specific.  With your example with her father getting sick, go into detail of how things are going to breakdown financially.  

You both need to be going in the same direction with what you do.  If you are not it will be an uphill battle.  

Answer 2

i dont know where you live but here in nashville tn, we have a program called dave ramsey he talks about paying things off and how to manage your money, he also has a web sight , he helped me i know he can help you, its called daveramsey.com